Traill College

Join us for a special dinner to celebrate the winners of the Thomas H.B. Symons Seminar Series on Graduate Student Research. After dinner and toasts, enjoy a Q&A and discussion session with our winner and mingle with other attendees while music plays.

Don’t miss this year’s Symons Gala Dinner and the 2025-2026 winner Irina Badell Garcia’s spectacular presentation on her research. The Gala will be held in Bagnani Hall, at Traill College. Dress attire is as formal as you'd like! All graduate students, faculty, and staff welcome.

Tickets are free, but registration is a commitment. Please do not book a ticket if you can’t show up, as it deprives someone else of this great opportunity.

Symons Seminar Series Winner and Presenter: Irina Badell Garcia

A thoughtful and stubborn 4th year PhD in forensic epigenetics at Trent, Irina was born in Barcelona and has been in Canada for three years. She has worked in identifying WWII victims from mass graves in Poland, analyzed XV century skeletal remains found in a medieval church in Spain, helped track the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Germany, and for a year worked at the European Patent Office. Curious and solutions-oriented, she aims at continuing to pursue research that matters —to people, to practice and to the questions worth asking.

Our 2026 Symons Series winner is Irina Badell Garcia, PhD Candidate in Forensic Epigenetics, with her presentation, “How long has a cadaver been dead? DNA methylation helps us find the answer." A thoughtful and stubborn 4th year PhD in forensic epigenetics at Trent, Irina was born in Barcelona and has been in Canada for three years. She has worked in identifying WWII victims from mass graves in Poland, analyzed XV century skeletal remains found in a medieval church in Spain, helped track the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Germany, and for a year worked at the European Patent Office. Curious and solutions-oriented, she aims at continuing to pursue research that matters —to people, to practice and to the questions worth asking.

More on the Symons Series:

Initiated by students of the 1993-94 Vanier Seminar, the Thomas H.B. Symons Seminar Series for Graduate Research is a graduate student research forum where individuals from various disciplines communicate their knowledge and research findings to a broader audience consisting of fellow graduate students, and the Trent and Peterborough communities. The series has provided a unique platform for graduate students and future leaders to share their research and raise awareness on different issues of concern.

The Symons Seminar Series for Graduate Research brings to life the joys and passions of Tom Symons. Graduate Students have the chance to present their research to an audience comprising of individuals from both Trent University and the Peterborough Community. Each seminar features two students (one from the Arts and one from the Sciences) who present their research and help bridge the gap between the Arts and Sciences. The Symons Seminar Series for Graduate Research is one of the longest running student-led seminar series in North America.